Clinton to testify Dec. 20 (Updated)

12/12/12 6:57 PM EST

The date for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s highly anticipated congressional testimony on the Benghazi attacks has been set: Dec. 20.

Clinton will appear then before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to detail the State Department’s own investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks, which killed Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the House committee’s chairwoman, indicated last week that her hearing will be open to the public. Several congressional hearings centered on the attack have been behind closed doors due to the sensitive nature of the information.

The Senate hearing with Clinton will be held at 9 a.m., and the House at 1 p.m. Both hearings will be open to the public.

"We ask our diplomats and development personnel to operate in some of the most dangerous places on the planet," said Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We owe it to them, and we owe it to the memory of Ambassador Chris Stevens and his three fellow Americans who lost their lives in Benghazi to get past the politics and focus on the substance of what happened and what it tells us about diplomatic security going forward."